San Diego can and should be smart city leader

CHRIS CATE

Solving the challenges that accompany the many blessings of urban life takes collaboration, investment, leadership and vision. The more interconnected our world becomes, the more this is true. It is critical that San Diego not make the mistake of waiting for the future to happen, but invests now in smart city technologies that will create a more livable, workable and sustainable city of the future.

Great cities have always been “smart cities” in the broadest sense. Their greatness is no accident, but is the result of vision, planning, and strategic infrastructure investments. Rather than simply determining solutions that solved the problem of the day, past leaders looked to implement solutions that would remain in place long past their generation.

These developments, cutting-edge for their time, improved urban life worldwide. Their immediate impact was a dramatic improvement in the quality of life that made those cities more attractive places to live and work. Serious competitive advantages followed.

For people who live and work in a cutting-edge smart city, the advantages are enormous. They enjoy measurable gains in their quality of life, and those gains pay dividends for years in the form of increased economic and social opportunities. Smart cities attract innovative people who then invest their own resources into making those cities even more livable.

This week, Digi.City, a startup organization urging urban leaders to take the lead in the development of next-generation communication and data networks, hosted a forum headlined by Mayor Kevin Faulconer. The event was an alert to all residents and community leaders that the race for 5G (fifth generation), a new network system that runs at much higher speeds and capacity, is not something for leaders to address tomorrow; it is underway now. Cities whose leaders think they are waiting for the race to start have already put their communities behind.

San Diego is in a great position to become the national leader in smart city development. We have a culture that fully embraces innovation. Also, we have a city that understands the importance of making such critical investments.

Through our MetroLab program, the city of San Diego’s Neighborhood Services Department has partnered with UC San Diego to solve challenges, such as income inequality, infrastructure weakness, security, environmental sustainability, and transportation.

We use BigBelly smart trash bins that know when they are full and smell too much. We have developed a traffic signal communication master plan to better manage the city’s traffic. We have passed a Climate Action Plan which will lead to the widespread adoption of electric vehicle charging stations throughout our city. This is only the beginning.

The smart city of the future will require significant upgrades to our communication infrastructure to enable the 5G networks that will transform urban life.

Such investments will come from both the public and private sectors which is why it is important our city provide a hospitable climate for innovative businesses and individuals.

In San Diego, we are ahead of the game. In 2015, we were rated the No. 4 life science and bioscience location by industry leaders. Our software development industry accounts for over $12 billion in economic impact. We are ranked second in the percentage growth of degree-holding millennials. Now is not the time to slow down. We must keep moving forward to reap the economic and social benefits of becoming a globally recognized smart city.

Right now, tech companies are developing the infrastructure necessary to create the 5G networks that will enable the management of our roadways and critical infrastructure, the instantaneous transfer of bulk data, and other innovations we cannot yet imagine.

San Diego needs to take the lead when it comes to facilitating innovation.

It is no longer the case that great innovations happen only in a handful of world capitals. When Uber launched its groundbreaking fleet of self-driving cars last fall, it rolled them out in the streets of Pittsburgh, not Paris, London or New York.

“You can either put up red tape or roll out the red carpet,” Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said. “If you want to be a 21st-century laboratory for technology, you put out the carpet.”

San Diego has put out that red carpet. Now, we must make sure it stays out — and we have to make sure that people know it’s out.

Thanks to our strong, inventive and open-minded community, San Diego is becoming recognized as a leader in high-tech innovation. We need to build on that and solidify our place as the nation’s most advanced smart city. The time is now.

Cate represents District 6 on the San Diego City Council. Twitter: @chrisjcate